More advice for small business retailers connecting POS software to a Shopify website

What you get out of having a Shopify site or any website created for your retail business is up to you. This is important to consider because we see retailers sometimes think that turning on a website drives success. That alone does not.

Here in this article we seek to provide an example of some advice we share with retailers considering a website created by us. This information, along with other comprehensive information and advice we provide, is intended to educate and guide small business retailers in getting online and getting online through us.

A Shopify site, like any website, is a hungry beast. By this we mean that it  needs to be fed, with new content and changes, regularly.

1. Continue to add products and ensure they are named and described how people would search for them. For example, if you sell a Mickey Mouse teacup, in your POS software you might call it teacup – Mickey. From a search perspective, it needs to be called: Disney Mickey Mouse teacup.
2. Refresh your landing page descriptions. A landing page is a collection page on which you have items for that collection. Write 3 or 4 crisp sentences of 15 or 20 words each with the sentences punching keywords people are likely to search for. Remember, you are writing more for the search engines than humans.
3. The best photos are those you take, of single products. A photo of a display is not easily understood by humans or Google.
4. Add articles. Your knowledge could be what differentiates your business from any competitor. Indeed, non-product content will most likely drive more traffic than product content. Write articles about what you sell and your business more broadly. Fresh text-based content helps drive the authority of your website. Each article should these rules to engage with Google:
   1. Be at least 350 words.
   2. Use a keyword or key phrase at 5+ times through the article.
   3. Be your own written fresh content.
   4. Cover a single topic or focus.
5. Get suppliers and others to link to you. The more the better.
6. Sell products on additional channels: Facebook, Instagram & eBay.
7. Regularly pitch your site on social media.
8. Use Shopify’s abandoned cart feature to push sales.
9. Pitch promotional discounts to draw in new customers.

This is not everything. It is designed to be a guide, to get indie retailers thinking early.